1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste toner collecting device, and more particularly to a waste toner collecting device which collects and contains a waste toner produced by an image forming apparatus, which remains on an image bearing member and which is removed by a cleaner therefrom. In addition, the present invention also relates to an image forming apparatus including the waste toner collecting device.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, users of image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers, facsimiles and complex machines thereof perform operations such as change of consumable supplies of the image forming apparatus and maintenance operations that service men have conventionally performed.
Recently, image forming apparatus have been miniaturized and the price thereof is reduced, and the constitutional parts of the image forming apparatus have also been miniaturized as much as possible. In addition, recently users have to replace parts which have lost their functions before expiration of their lives, and a container which is set in an image forming apparatus to contain toner and paper duct remaining on an image bearing member and being removed therefrom by a cleaner, at a regular interval.
In addition, with widespread of personal computers, image forming apparatus are typically set near personal computers. Therefore, it is important to reduce noise generated during image forming operations.
Toner particles (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a waste toner) which are transferred to an image bearing member but are not transferred to a receiving material are collected and contained in a container. In order to reuse the waste toner, the image forming apparatus have to include passages through which the waste toner is collected and driving mechanism which feeds the waste toner, resulting in jumboization of the image forming apparatus.
In addition, the waste toner includes paper dust released from transfer paper sheets, but it is difficult to separate the waste toner from paper dust. Further, in full color image forming apparatus using three or four color toners, the amount of the waste toners is large, and thereby a large container has to be set in the image forming apparatus, resulting in jumboization and complication of the image forming apparatus.
Therefore, a technique in that a relatively small container is set in an image forming apparatus and the container is replaced with an empty container when the container is fully filled with a waste toner is typically used. In this case, it is a problem to be solved how to efficiently collect the waste toner (i.e., how to fully fill the container with the waste toner) in order to reduce the container changing frequency.
In general, operations of collecting a waste toner are performed by falling the waste toner into a container from above. Whether or not the container is fully filled with the waste toner is detected with a chock-full detector arranged on an upper portion of the container. Therefore it is important to evenly fill the container with the waste toner without causing mal-distribution of the waste toner in the container.
In attempting to contain a waste toner evenly, a technique in that a container is shaken and a technique in that a piled waste toner is leveled are well known.
The former technique has the following drawbacks:    (1) noise is generated during the shaking operation;    (2) a shaking mechanism has to be provided in the image forming apparatus;    (3) since the containers shaken, a chock-full detector has to be provided in the container which is disposed of when the container is fully filled with a waste toner, resulting in increase of cost of the container; and    (4) an operation such that a connector is connected to a chock-full detector is necessary when the container used is replaced.
The latter technique has the following drawbacks:    (1) a leveling member is provided without taking into consideration of the shape of the container used, and thereby the waste toner piled is not fully leveled if the container has a complex shape;    (2) the waste toner tends to firmly fix in the container when the waste toner is insufficiently leveled; and    (3) a problem in that the waste toner overflows the container tends to occur when the waste toner is insufficiently leveled.
Namely, with miniaturization and sophistication of image forming apparatus, the free space in the image forming apparatus is reduced and has a complex form. Therefore, a waste toner container tends to have a complex form because of being set in such a free space. Therefore, the waste container has a portion in which the waste toner is mainly deposited.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for a waste toner collecting device which can prevent mal-distribution of a waste toner in a container, i.e., which need not be frequently replaced with an empty container, even when the container has such a special form as to fit into a free space of an image forming apparatus.